Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Reuters just put out a wire report with the title "Iraq on brink of becoming failed state: report" that is based on a study by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. But one has to be a little skeptical of the report's accuracy if they mispell names such as "Montana al-Sadri" (...for Muqtada al-Sadr), "Medic Army militia" (...for Mahdi Army militia) and "Nora al-Malice" (...for Nouri al-Maliki) that have often been in the news recently...

In a report on Monday, the Pentagon said the Medic Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Montana al-Sadri had replaced al Qaeda as the "most dangerous accelerant of potentially self- sustaining sectarian violence in Iraq."

While the statement came as little surprise to many Iraqis, especially minority Sunnis, it was the bluntest statement yet by the Pentagon on the militia. U.S. commanders in Iraq have previously been reluctant to blame the Medic Army by name.

The U.S. and Iraqi military have also avoided large-scale strikes on his Sadri City stronghold, although they have staged raids to seize suspected Medic Army death squad leaders.

Shiite Prime Minister Nora al-Malice, who owes his position to Sad's support, has vowed to dismantle the militias but has done little so far to rein them in. The Pentagon report said the Medic Army exerted "significant influence" over the government.

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Radical action is needed to save a "hollowed-out and fatally weakened" Iraqi state and ease violence that a new Pentagon report says is at an all-time high, a prominent think-tank warned on Tuesday.

The report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said an international effort was needed to prevent Iraq collapsing into a "failed and fragmented state" whose Shi'ite- Sunni Arab conflict could draw in its neighbors in a proxy war.

"Hollowed-out and fatally weakened, the Iraqi state today is prey to armed militias, sectarian forces and a political class that, by putting short-term personal benefit ahead of long term national interests, is complicit in Iraq's tragic destruction."

In a report on Monday, the Pentagon said the Medic Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Montana al-Sadri had replaced al Qaeda as the "most dangerous accelerant of potentially self- sustaining sectarian violence in Iraq."

While the statement came as little surprise to many Iraqis, especially minority Sunnis, it was the bluntest statement yet by the Pentagon on the militia. U.S. commanders in Iraq have previously been reluctant to blame the Medic Army by name.

The U.S. and Iraqi military have also avoided large-scale strikes on his Sadri City stronghold, although they have staged raids to seize suspected Medic Army death squad leaders.

Shiite Prime Minister Nora al-Malice, who owes his position to Sad's support, has vowed to dismantle the militias but has done little so far to rein them in. The Pentagon report said the Medic Army exerted "significant influence" over the government.

"It is likely that Shiite militants were responsible for more civilian casualties than those associated with terrorist organizations. Shi'ite militants were the most significant threat to Coalition presence in Baghdad and southern Iraq," the Pentagon report said.

'POLITICAL COMPROMISE A MUST'

The Pentagon's findings were given added urgency by Tuesday's ICG report, which took issue with a call by a high- level Washington panel, the Iraq Study Group, to speed up the handover of security control to the Iraqi government.

"This is not a military challenge in which one side needs to be strengthened and another defeated. It is a political challenge in which new consensual understandings need to be reached," the ICG said.

Washington has been frustrated by the inability of Iraq's leaders to reach a political compromise that would take the heat out of the Sunni insurgency and ease sectarian tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis that have sparked spiraling violence.

"All Iraqi actors ... must be brought to the negotiating table and must be pressured to accept the necessary compromises. That cannot be done without a concerted effort by all Iraq's neighbors," the ICG said, calling for an international conference on Iraq that included all political players.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed that Iraq's neighbors, who include Syria and Iran, must play a role in resolving the crisis that threatens to tear the country apart. The United Nations says 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing each month.

"All of Iraq's neighbors should help because all ... would have to deal with (it if) the situation does not resolve in Iraq. If I were a neighbor I would be especially interested to help bring stability in Iraq," she told al-Arabiya television on Tuesday.

President Bush is expected in January to announce a new strategy for Iraq, where nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"You will not see this president desert Iraq. You will see this president remain strongly committed until Iraqis can govern themselves and sustain themselves," Rice said.

HYDERABAD LOK SABHA MP ASADUDDIN OWAISI IS THE FIRST INDIAN DIPLOMAT TO VISIT LEBANON AFTER THE WAR ACCORDING TO THE ETEMAAD URDU DAILY AND ALMANAR TV MR ASADUDDIN IS ON A PRIVATE VISIT TO LEBANON AND SYRIA AND NOT REPRESENTING THE INDIANGOVERNMENT OVER THERE IT IS SAID TO BE A GOODWILL VISIT AND TO SHOW SUPPORT OF INDIAN MUSLIMS IN THE WAKE OF DEATH AND MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OVER THERE ACCORDING TO THE REPORTS MR OWAISI FLEW FROM DELHI TO DAMASCUAS CAPITAL OF SYRIA AND WAS WELCOMED ON HIS ARRIVAL THERE BY INDIAN EMBASSY STAFF AND WHILE HIS STAY IN DAMASACUS FOR 3 DAYS HE VISITED HISTORIC AND ISLAMIC HOLY SHRINES AND EVEN VISITED THE GRAND UMMAYD MOSQUE AND AFTER THAT HE WENT TO BEIRUT BY ROAD AND WHILE HIS STAY HE ALONG WITH HEZBOLLAH MPS VISITED THE SOUTHEREN PART OF BEIRUT CITY WHICH WAS THE MOST BOMBED AREA IN BEIRUT WHICH WAS REPETADELY STUCK BY ISRAELI WARPLANES AND FROM THERE HE ALONG WITH VARIOUS OTHER SOCIAL AND AID ACTVISTS HE WENT TO QANA AND VISITED THE PLACE WHERE A BUILDING WAS COLLAPSED AFTER A ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE IN WHICH 57 CIVILLANNS WERE KILLED AND MR OWAISI HAS EVEN VISITED THE PORT CITY OF TYRE AN MET ITS MAYOR MR ALI MUSHARRAF .THE CITY WHICH WAS DESERTED AT THE TIME OF WAR AND BINT JEBIL AN AREA IN SOUTHERN LEBANON WHICH WAS THE MAIN BATTLEFRONT BETWEEN HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS AND ISRAELI ARMY AND IS SAID THAT THE WHOLE VILLAGES IN THAT AREA HAVE BEEN DEVASTED BY THE FIGHTING WHICH LASTED FOR 34 DAYS AND ON HIS VISIT TO BEIRUT THE HYDERABAD MP GAVE AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW TO THE HEZBOLLAH RUN TV AL MANAR AND SAID THAT HE HAS COME TO LEBANON TO SHOW HIS SOLADIRTY WITH THE LEBANESE PEOPLE AND SAID HOW TH INDIAN GOVT HAS CONDEMNED THE WAR IN LEBANON AND THE GOVT OF INDIA HAS ANNOUNCED HUMANITARIAN AID WORTH 10 MILLION DOLLARS TO THE LEBANESE PEOPLE HE MET WITH MANY CIVILLANS AND OLD AGE WOMEN WHOSE SONS WERE KILLED WHILE FIGHTING THE ISRAELI ARMY MR OWAISI WILL STAY IN LEBANON AND MEET LEBABNESE MPS AND EVEN WILL VISIT INDIAN EMBASSY IN BEIRUT AND MEET INDIAN EMBASSY STAFF AND AMBASSADOR . REPORTS SUGGEST THAT HE EVEN MET HEZBOLLAH LEADERS WHILE HIS STAY IN BEIRUT.HE MET HEZBOLLAH SOUTHERN COMMANDER HASAN HUBULLAH AND HEZBOLLAH CHAIRMAN FOR ECONOMIC AND RESARCH DEVELOPMENT DR ALI FAYYAD AND WHILE COMING OUT OF LEBANESE PARLIAMENT AFTER MEETING LEBANESE PARLIAMENT SPEAKER NABIL BERRI THE HYDERABAD MP SPEAKING TO REPORTERS SAID THAT PEACE CANNOT BE ACHIEVED IN THE REGION UNLESS ISRAEL WITHDRAWS FROM ALL OCCUPIED LANDS HE CRITCIZED THE ISRAELI AGGRESSION AND SAID WHAT ISRAEL HAS DONE BY KILLING INNOCENT CIVILLANS AND DAMAGING LEBANONS INFRASTRUCTURE IS A ACT OF STATE TERRORISM. AND THIS WILL NOT DESTROY THE WILL OF THE LEBANESE PEOPLE FIGHTING AGAINST OCCUPATION OF THERE LAND .HE SAID THE WEST WHICH PREACHES DEMOCRACY IN THE REGION IS ITSELF AGAINST THE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVT OF HAMAS IN PALESTINE AND HE SAID IT IS NOT ONLY LEBANON WHICH HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY TERRORISM INDIA IS ALSO A VICTIM OF TERRORISM.